Tag Archives: birthday

Reading the captions made me giggle. Thinking of how silly introverts are. Uniting separately in their own homes. Hehe.

The humor slowly faded when I realized that I am also an introvert.

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Introverts + Strangers

As an introvert, I see social gatherings as a challenge. It takes tremendous willpower, courage, and motivation to get me to go somewhere with a bunch of strangers. Especially if the expectation at the event is that you should mingle with everyone there.

The way I feel about meeting strangers is similar to people’s mindset when dealing with someone who has the plague. There is a distaste in your mouth. Your stomach feels queasy. You try to keep a distance from them.

With the plague, people have a good reason to act like this. But with an introvert like myself, what am I so afraid of catching?

If anything, I might catch their infectious enthusiasm, humor, or wisdom. There’s plenty of awesome people out there who I have yet to meet.

Yet when I’m at an event I always revert to my introverted self.

Perhaps I’m afraid of what people may think of me once we start talking. At least if I keep to myself, I’ll always be a mystery to them.

Perhaps I have a limit on how many relationships I can juggle at once. With more people, even if they are just acquaintances, it overburdens my emotional capacity. Since I’m an introvert and only have a few quality relationships, I go out of my way to protect those few that I do have. I know how hard it would be to find another one. So I push others away, to ensure the health of my current relationships.

Perhaps I am a control freak when it comes to my personal space. At home, I can re-arrange things how I like it. Everything is predictable when I’m by myself. Out there, not so much. I have less control in the real world. People tend to do things that I least expect. And I find that extremely intimidating.

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Introverts + Family & Friends

I don’t really mind going to places where I know most of the people there like family get-togethers or parties with friends.

Me and mom re-counting all the people who have May birthdays in our family.

Mom: We have your Dad’s, then grandpa’s, and then your nephew Cu Minh’s.

(Btw, my nephew’s name is Oliver Minh. The “Cu” that precedes his name means penis. For some reason, Vietnamese people think it’s cute to append “Cu” before babies’ & toddler’s actual names. Similar to how American people call little girls princesses and little boys munchkins, except those nicknames don’t mean penis.)